Thursday 11 May 2017

THE HISTORIC PORT OF ECHUCA AND A CRUISE BACK IN TIME (6 - 7 APRIL 2017)

The historic port of Echuca and its association with the paddle steamer trade of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is a place we suspect is well know to most Australians. It certainly was to us, and we were finally here (after the false start of some years ago!)

We actually visited this precinct twice, once as we were prowling around the town on foot, and on the second occasion, as guests on the 'PS Pevensey'. As regular readers will know, we are rarely encouraged to embark on 'formal tours', but here in Echuca a paddle steamer cruise is almost de rigueur......and as you will soon see there are plenty from which to choose.......I'll explain our choice later. As for this blog, I've combined the two experiences on the basis they took place in the same general area.



We began our foot tour just beyond the imposing edifice which is the Echuca Bridge Hotel at the northern end of the adventurously named Murray Esplanade, which runs through the precinct dubbed 'The Port of Echuca', so proclaimed by the road sign at this and the other end of the street.









At this stage we were more interested in what was happening on the river, so we headed off down to the bank where we were surprised to see just how narrow the River Murray actually is here. 





I suspect this reaction was based on two things. Firstly we have had quite extensive experience house boating on the river in SA, where it is, for the most part, much broader. The second factor relates to the fact that we knew that this had been such a busy port in days gone by and we found it difficult to imagine all this hectic activity, with craft which were anything but agile, took place on such a relatively narrow section of the waterway.  As it was, and as you will shortly see, there was plenty going on, even today.




It was soon evident that most of the paddle steamers plying this part of the river are still genuinely steam powered....this was just one of several wood fuel stock piles to be found here.







And there were indeed paddle steamers everywhere, some alongside, others thumping their


way up and downstream. The skippers here are well into self promotion if the number of times they tooted and hooted on the variously pitched boat whistles was anything to go by. As we knew, there are times when whistle or horn blasts are a required method of indicating a proposed change of direction to either side, or when going astern, but many of the blasts of steam through the whistle pipes of these boats was quite obviously nothing more than sheer ebullience. We were soon to learn that it is a hallmark sound of the town.....all over the town.....'the sound of Echuca'!




As we stood and took all this in for the first time, we were treated to the sight of 'Canberra' and 'Pevensey' manoeuvring at what to us appeared challengingly close quarters (we later discovered that the river boat skippers here are seriously good at what they do....they have to be!).






And in complete contrast......here we have the modern hull and superstructure of the 'MV Mary Anne', a floating diner where 'coffee and cake' can be had on the outside deck whilst she is alongside or those embarking on her regular dinner cruises can partake of a much more substantial culinary offering......at a price!







Looking downstream we could see quite a number of houseboats lining the curve of the bank. Despite the fact we've not now been on the water for quite some years, we can never resist the chance to see what is floating on the river,







so off we went, past these two local oddities, two old red gum stumps on which, for some unknown reason, many passing by have felt the compulsion to divest themselves of their thongs and nail them to these trunks. 







It was about here that we saw this vacant bank side infrastructure which we guessed was in place to allow those who had hired a local house boat access to their vessel. As we later saw, this was precisely right, and for good reason.....some of the moorings we were about to see make boarding much more of a challenge. 






The houseboat moorings on this section of the river are home to a wide variety of craft, most privateers, although we did find several which were obviously for hire.











And our favourite was.....!!! We could but imagine the fun and games the owners of this neat little boat have on the river if the name is any indication.






But a short distance further downstream we came to the section where the bank rises steeply and the moorings are significantly more precarious..... and become even more so as the river drops. I wouldn't fancy lugging too much up and down this extended gangplank (hence the long moorings we had seen earlier).






So with our quest to take in the Echuca houseboats (or some of them at least) satisfied, it was back to the highly commercialised precinct of Murray Esplanade, here seen looking south along it from the northern entrance. 





Here we found all the usual suspects.  Not unexpectedly, the imposing tourist information 


centre, cum cruise booking office, cum souvenir shop was front and centre, but along this street there are many more establishments where the tourist and his or her dollar can be parted, as indeed we found throughout.  This is one very, very tourist orientated town. 





Here a cruise booking office shares a common wall with the St Annes winery cellar door (it was far too early!)










whilst across the road 'ye olde slab hut' was home to those offering horse riding adventures and other outdoor pursuits at a nearby farm. 









Needless to say, satisfying the comfort of 'the inner man' is well catered for with establishments like the charming Wisteria Cafe, nestled behind its screen of green,











or the nearby Star Hotel being but two of the several premises offering a range of food and drink to the passing trade. 












Right next to The Star we found the old red brick structure of what is now a souvenir etc shop
















whilst across the road antique port photographs can be bought from those housed in this old railway carriage.






Another real and inescapable feature of the port precinct are the horse drawn carriages, of varying types. Throughout the day, 'Dobbin and friends' clip clop their way to and fro along Murray Esplanade and out into the nearby town streets, their coaches or buggies crammed with tourists.





I should note at this point that we had landed in Echuca during the Victorian school holidays. All the regular tourist traps were very lively indeed!




Towards the southern end of Murray Esplanade, we came across a quite significant (and for your scribe, a far more interesting) piece of local history, a log truck, ooops...log buggy














which, as the sign on the huge log it is bearing notes, is made entirely of red gum timber.....including the wheels. Nothing like making use of what was on hand. Timber milling made up a large part of the early Echuca economy, and with good reason....there was no shortage of raw material.....initially.






This display brought us to the southern end of the precinct, where I was more than taken by the bright hues of the flowering tree at the entrance. What a botanical marvel, I thought. As I took a closer look, 'taken in' became a more appropriate way to describe my initial reaction.....these 'blossoms' are all artificial, but there can be no denying their impact!





We had, by now, decided that we really should join the tourist herd and take a cruise on a paddle steamer, so before making our way back to camp The Treasurer parted with the required coin of the realm at this booking office which more or less overlooks what is now left of the famous Echuca Wharf.


Of the many craft which offer river cruises here (there are at least five), we chose to travel on the 'Pevensey,' for three reasons. It is the vessel which featured in the TV mini series 'All The Rivers Run', the show which brought fame to Sigrid Thorton and John Waters, and one which we could both well remember, it docks at what is now left of the old wharf, and, (here we did accept without demure the claim made in the relevant blurb) it remains the 'oldest and most authentic paddle steamer operating daily from the Port of Echuca'.

Based on what we saw during our foot slog around the port, we also took the decision to join the first cruise of the day when hopefully the decks would be less crowded and rowdy children would be at a minimum. This proved to be a good call!

Before we embark, let's take a quick look at what remians of the Echuca wharf, and here


the most appropriate comment is....not a lot.....and even this is mostly a reconstruction. I'll let the excellent presentation on the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy take up the story:

"Spanning three colonies, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria (forming the border of the latter two) the Murray River was recognised as an easy route for transporting produce from pastoral areas to markets as the road network was poorly developed in the area. Following the establishment of the colony of South Australia in 1836, navigation of the Murray River seemed to offer the new colony favourable economic prospects. Between 1855 and 1859 various voyages along the Murray River established the practical limits of river trade and the distances that could be travelled. By 1870 the Murray River was the main channel for taking the wealth of agricultural production inland to the coast.

Echuca

Echuca is ideally located as the nearest point on the Murray River to Melbourne,and a river crossing point to New South Wales. This geography ensured its early development and cemented its place in history as a thriving river port city following its founding in 1854.
The building of the original wharf commenced in 1864 and was completed in 1867. As the trade grew, so did the wharf, being extended in 1877, 1879, with final extensions in 1884 ultimately reaching 332 metres in length.

The town of Echuca became Australia’s largest inland port and Victoria's second largest port overall up until the 1880s.

The transformation of an economy

The development of the Echuca Wharf and the railway established a major trade route to Melbourne that contributed to the shift of colonial economic power out of Sydney for the first time in Australia’s history. The establishment of the river trade also transformed inland pastoral industries. Station owners began to change from cattle, a good option when the only transport to market was overland, to sheep, because river transport of wool made sheep farming a better economic option.  At its peak, 200 steam-driven paddleboats would arrive at the wharf each week and unload their cargo for transportation to Melbourne by rail. Wool, wheat and other grains, livestock and timber were the most common cargoes. The growth in trade was matched by the growth in population and at one stage more than 15,000 people lived in Echuca (alongside, over one hundred pubs).

River trade in the Murray-Darling Basin reshaped Australia’s pastoral industries and greatly encouraged the rapid economic growth and development of the colonies during this time. The wharf and the railway meant that goods could be moved through Echuca from points throughout the entire Murray-Darling catchment area.

The arrival of river steamers meant that wool from sheep was much easier to export and the number of sheep in the Riverina and western pastoral districts grew rapidly. The direct access to markets led to the rapid expansion in the scale and value of the pastoral holdings, which in turn increased the demand for river trade.

Echuca becomes an important centre

Echuca remained the entry point for much of the interior of the continent and a major trading centre for nearly 20 years until the opening of the railway from Junee to Hay in 1882. The river trade began to decline as the financial crisis of the 1890s hit the national economy, and the extension of the railway network in New South Wales and Victoria took away valuable trade.

During World War II, Victorian Railways demolished much of the wharf to provide firewood for Melbourne, reducing it to its current length of 75.5 metres.

The giant red-gum timber structure towers above the river and the surrounding landscape, the wharf is three stories high, allowing for the possible 10 metre variation in river height between summer and winter, and enabling the wharf to operate year round. The longest extent of the wharf (332 metres), is evidenced by some remnant pylons which are visible at low water. Since the 1960s, the wharf and paddle-steamers have found a new life, servicing the ever increasing tourist trade attracted to the romance of the river and the ‘Age of the Paddle-steamers’."

So there you have it.....this really is a place of historical significance on a number of fronts. I am still struggling with the fact that the greater part of this structure actually became firewood!  








This photo of the wharf as it was, courtesy of 'nla'









and these (thanks to 'ehive' and 'boylesfootballphotos')











hopefully serve to give some impression of just what a hive of activity the Port of Echuca was during its heyday.












But at least what remains of this extraordinary structure, seen here looking along the wet dock (circa 1877),











continues to be put to good use....it docks the 'Pevensey', seen here on its final approach behind the moored 'PS Adelaide' and 'PS Alexander Arbuthnot'.










Today we were to become part of the happy throng milling about on the decks of 'Pevensey'.  At the appointed hour we congregated at the wharf entrance and were guided down the long entry ramp 











to a point on the lowest level of the wharf which, even today, has three working levels to cater for the rise and fall of the river.










With tickets presented we were soon on board, and whilst Liz was content to savour the sun on the foredeck I was off to see what made this vessel tick.











On the upper deck the small dining room







and this bedroom cabin provide some idea of crew conditions at the time this was a working boat. Frankly, it didn't look too bad.













Of course the upper deck is also home to the wheelhouse with its massive steering wheel. Here the height advantage is critical to good navigation along the often tricky waters of the river, where turbulent eddies, strong currents, sand and mud bars and hidden snags were all just part of the daily fun.










The lower deck houses the business end of the enterprise. Here the pistons of the 20 horse power Marshall engine (the original) pulse and push in response to the power of the steam generated in the boiler below. They are connected directly to the drive shaft which is in turn attached to the huge paddle wheels on either side of the steamer.  








As I was marvelling at this beautifully maintained engine of yesteryear, the boiler hatch was flung open by the boat's apprentice engineer, and he threw in cord after cord of timber which was obviously (judging by this still covered stack) cut precisely to length.







The good old 'Pevensey', n
amed after a large local sheep station, was quite a craft in her day (and still is), as the facts and stats on this on board plaque attest.








With a full head of steam now filling the engine cylinders, and three blasts of the steamer's siren (signifying it was about to go into reverse), the crew slipped the lines, the engineer ramped up the power in response to the bell signal from the wheelhouse, and with a thump and whoosh of the paddle wheels we were away.



We initially steamed a short distance upstream from the wharf, where the entry ramp could now be seen clearly, and as the 'Canberra' wallowed its way upstream towards us, our skipper half turned our vessel and then let the current bring us around to face the opposite direction. It was more than evident that this was not his first trip on the river!





Off we went downstream, past the floating docks where yet another of the local boats was taking on cruise passengers for their adventure on the water.










But a short distance further along the river, our question as to where all the expensive hire houseboats were to be found was answered. 










Beyond this mooring area 'Pevensey' plodded her way majestically along leaving the distinctive paddle steamer wake astern as we made our way to the next bend in the river










where we passed the magnificently restored, and now privately owned, 'PS Barmah' as she lay alongside the bank below her owners' home.






Just beyond here, and about twenty minutes into our cruise, our skipper again turned our vessel in what seemed an impossibly narrow section of waterway, nosing into the bank and then letting the current work its magic on our stern and bring us about.  



As we began to make our way back upstream, Liz spotted one of the blue distance markers on a tree trunk......here we were.....1710 kilometres from the river's mouth on the Southern Ocean. Well, so what, I hear you ask.  We were marvelling at the fact that the first marker to which we headed when we used to take 'Kloe'  out of Moorook was 456. We were a long way from there......this is indeed a big stream!


Throughout our voyage, the skipper maintained a most interesting commentary whilst all the while heaving the huge wheel one way and the other with the ponderous bulk of 'Pevensey' responding with surprising alacrity.


Our skipper was not the only one entertaining the troops. This jovial fellow wandered around the boat with his incredibly well trained Little Corella performing all sorts of tricks, much to the amusement of all on board.  I have to admit by the end of the tour I could also be (reluctantly) counted amongst his admirers......the things this bird did were mind boggling. 





In what seemed far less than our allotted hour on the water we were steaming back past the main Echuca moorings, where 'PS Emmylou' was taking on her next load of passengers and the large houseboat 'Brittania' was similarly engaged.









As our skipper reduced the revolutions of the steadfast Marshall and eased our bow towards the wharf,












and the 'Emmylou' steamed past, 










we had time to reflect on what great hour or so this had been. Commercial, yes, somewhat expensive, yes, but for me at least this had been money well spent, if for no other reason than to have had the opportunity to watch and admire the skill with which this large paddle steamer had been handled.




So, with 'Pevensey' again tied off at the wharf, we retraced our steps up the ramp, stopping briefly to take in this display of the old timber milling saws and equipment, 













powered as they were by one of the many working static steam engines next door,





before we again emerged onto Murray Esplanade in the heart of the Port of Echuca, a port and wharf to which we said a fond farewell a day later when looking at it from yet another aspect, this time from a vantage point well upstream.



From here we reflected on what a fascinating place this is and could but only imagine the clouds of hissing steam, the smoke, and the noise of the whistles and sirens, the clanking of the overhead cranes and the shouts of the skippers and crews as the masses of paddle steamers and their towed barges fought the currents (and often each other) to bring the bales of wool to port for their rail journey down to Melbourne and beyond to the voracious mills of industrial Britain when this great continent of ours was 'riding on the sheep's back'.

It was almost enough to prompt us to seek out the videos of 'All The Rivers Run', but not quite!

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